BUDIMIR: ELFETA VESELI'S OUT-OF-PRISON PRIVILEGES UNDERMINE ANY RECONCILIATION NARRATIVE

PALE, AUGUST 5 /SRNA/ – Republika Srpska Interior Minister Željko Budimir says that allowing Elfeta Veseli to use out-of-prison privileges undermines any possibility of discussing normal life and reconciliation within BiH.

"When people like appear in public, regardless of whatever explanation is offered for why she can walk freely, it destroys any possibility of talking about a normal life, reconciliation within BiH, or trust in the BiH institutions," Budimir said at a press conference in Pale. Budimir argued that judicial reform, which was among the first reforms implemented in BiH, has failed to produce good results. "These are monstrous crimes. We are talking about a woman who was convicted of killing a child. What can we really talk before those institutions? That is why I says that, in the period ahead, serious consideration will have to be given to the direction of amending criminal legislation and procedural laws, and to the way these measures are implemented," the Republika Srpska interior minister said. He also referred to proceedings before the Court of BiH, citing the case against Atif Dudaković, whose trial has been ongoing for several years. The Tuzla Penitentiary confirmed to SRNA that the moinster woman, Elfeta Veseli, who was convicted of the murder of the boy Slobodan Stojanović, has been using out-of-prison privileges since September 2024. Veseli was initially sentenced by the Court of BiH to 10 years in prison for the brutal killing of Slobodan Stojanović. The Appellate Division of the same court later increased the sentence to 13 years' imprisonment after reclassifying the offense as a war crime against the civilian population. She has been in custody since September 2016, and her full sentence is scheduled to expire in 2029.